Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford addresses council

Linda Stelter/Birmingham NewsBirmingham Mayor Larry Langford talks to audience at the City Council meeting on Dec. 2, 2008.

Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford addressed the City Council today, his first appearance since he was named in an indictment on Monday.

"I can assure you that it is a better today than it was yesterday," Langford said.

Langford was arrested Monday after being charged in a federal indictment that accuses the former Jefferson County commissioner with receiving more than $236,000 in expensive clothes, designer watches and cash to pay his personal debt as part of a conspiracy to funnel county financial business to two of his friends. (Collection of stories on the indictment)

The mayor said again today that his attorneys have instructed him not to comment on the case, and he is not avoiding the media. "It's a legal issue," Langford said.

He went on to give the council an update on major capital projects in the city and said he would be leaving the council meeting early to bid farewell to members of an Alabama reserve unit who are being deployed to Iraq.